The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-05-03

were dLlOuS LnOSS pIcScut. lie ser
vices were begun by the choir and con-
gregation singing the hymn commenc-
ing:
Ou- God, we raise to Thee
Thanks for Thy blessings free.
We here enjoy.
Prayer By Elder Thomas G. Griggs.
Singing:
He died! the great Redeemer died,
And Israel's daughters wept around
A solemn darkness yelled the sky;
A sudden trembling shook the ground.
ELDER ROYAL B. YOUNG in respond ng
o the cali upon him to address the con.
gregation, felt his weakness. He rea-
liked that no man can know of the things
of God, except by the Spirit of God. He
was satisfied that the work he was en-
gagged IL was Ct God. The majority of
his hearers were Latter-day Saints who
believed as he believed and knew what
he knew concerning Mormonism. While
he considered it was great thing to be-
iieve on the Lord Jesus. he thought 1t
was a much greater. one to know Him.
Elder Young had reduced the teachings
he had heard to practice. 1t was a
q hazardous undertaking to the reputa
ton of an elder to 60 and proclaim to
business men in the east that Mormon
ism is true and that God Las spoken
from The heavens. Mormonlsm, to him,
was the essence of truth, the religion
which the Bible taught; if the Bible is
true, so Is Mormonism, Jesus said that
if a man obeyed the gospel requirements
ne should know of its truth. The
speaker yielded obedience to the prin-
cIpies laid down in the Bible. The
Christian people of the nation do MT
believe in the doctrines of the Bible,
they do not recognize that God has re-
vealed himself from the heavens; they
claim that revelation has been done
away with. Jesus said: "He that hath
my commandments and keepeth them,
shall be loved OF my Father. and l will
love him." If the world had received
no revelation, it was because they had
not kept the commandments of God.
Sucn ideas as Elder Young advocated
were ridiculed in the east, where he had
recently been; but he rejoiced in the
knowledge that if he was ridiculed, the
Savior himself was also ridiculed for
believed that the Latter-day Saints were
practicing the principles taught by the
Savior. Missionaries were sent here to
convert the people fiom the errors of
Mormonism; if the speaker were con-
verted, it would be from the Bible. He
had been asked by Gentle friends in
the east regarding the things he had
referred to, who thought that Nor
mon could not believe IL the Bible and
practice polygamy. The Saints could
challenge the world on this point; they
knew that plural marriage and tie Bible
agreed, and when that principle vas
assailed, its assailants antagonlzed the
Scriptures. 1t is impossible for a man
to say, ~ believe in the Bible" and in
the next breath say that polygamy is a
crime. He had been born and reared in
polygamy. had been imprisoned for nine
months for his'belief and practice OF that
principle. 1t was a serious thing to be
a Latter-day Saint and put in practice
what he believed; such course brought
down persecution and prosecution. Per-
version of the law he said, was resorted
to in order to carry out the ideas Of the
enemies of the Saints, Elder Young was
pleased to know that all that had been
said against the Mormons was false. He
related the circumstance of q lecture by
Miss Field, in Kansas City, on the
Mormon Monster" He had been born
and had lived in Utah thirty-fve years,
but had never yet seen the monster"
The lady drew largely upon her imagi-
nation, he remarked; the most of what
she said was false, probably not willful,
YET, nevertheless, false. He related
some of the misstatements told by Miss
Field, which, to the speaker, was so
much rot What she had said was
simply rebash Of what many in Chris
tendom saidg concerning the broken
hearted, tear-stain-cheeked, down
trodden, wretched plural wives of the
Mormons, which be denounced as non
sense. He knew for himself the oppo-
site and decried it in strong terms. There
was some at the most consummate folly
given to the world from the eastern press
and pulpit concerning the Mormons.
One was the resurrection of the late
President Brigham Young. The Nor
mons were called frauds; if they are
frauds. then is the Bible fraud. The
Saints were told they were wrong. and
beseeched to forsake their practices hut
they believed in the doctrines of Jesus
Christ andin reducing them to practice.
The eyangelizers sent to Utah could
offer the Mormons nothing. better than
they had already. He recited instances
OF ministers leaving one pulpit to preach
to another for a raise IN salary; they
preached for money-money was their
god he did not say all did this; but
many did. He felt consoled in the
knowledge that those who assalled Nor
monism themselves broke the law; they
transgressed against God and man. The
majesty OF the law as now enforced was
inhuman, he considered, and was work
ing hurt and suffering unnecessarily.
What effect. he asked, did incarceration
have on the elders imprisoned? None;
it was their children and wives who suf-
fered. The rulings made by the court
officials. reminded him of an anecdote
which hsrelated. 1t was'of lady who ap-
peared in a New England court and
petitioned for divorce from her profit
gate husband, who was drunkard and
who abused her children. She was in
formed by the court that upon that plea
drunkenness and profigacy = she
could no: be accommodated, but that if
she could prove that her husband had
been untrue to her, the divorce would
be granted II can prove that beyond
the Possibility of doubt" the woman
confidently assured the judge; II can
prove that he was not the father of my
last child. Upon which statement the